Your federal income taxes are due April 18 and so is a fine for failing to get health insurance. https://t.co/1g6m13AXTz
— The Sacramento Bee (@sacbee_news) April 17, 2017
...The fine for 2016 taxes is the greater of $695 per adult or 2.5 percent of household income. Fines for uncovered children are half the amount for adults. Fines are pro-rated by the number of months you or a family member was uninsured.
The maximum fine is $2,676; that is the national average cost of a "bronze" level insurance plan available on the health exchanges. But most people do not pay anywhere near that much. Last year, said the IRS, an estimated 6.5 million tax filers paid a fine that averaged $470.
If you bought your own insurance from the federal or a state health insurance exchange and you got a federal tax credit to help pay for that coverage, you also have to take a step before you can file your taxes.
People who got those tax credits must fill out a form that "reconciles" the amount of subsidies they received based on their income estimates with the amount they were entitled to according to their actual income reported to the IRS.
In 2016, 5.3 million taxpayers had to pay the government because they got too much in tax credits, compared with 2.4 million who got additional money back. But among those who underestimated their incomes and had to pay back some of those tax credits, 62 percent still received a net refund on their taxes.
